“Light from the Lake” is a blog about the inspirational people of Our Lady of the Lake University. It is about students who serve their community, alumni who shape the city, faculty and staff who influence the next generation of leaders, and the Congregation of Divine Providence that founded and sponsors OLLU today. It is about a University community that turned a four-alarm fire in 2008 into a catalyst for growth and renewal. The blog is written by Ken Rodriguez, an award-winning journalist and marketer at OLLU and freelance writer.

Note: This is an mySA.com City Brights Blog. These blogs are not written or edited by mySA or the San Antonio Express-News. The authors are solely responsible for the content.

Serving Country and Students

In post-Vietnam America, Wallis Sanborn III understood the nation’s mood for peace. He also knew his family’s history in battle.

One grandfather served in World War I, the other in World War II. His father spied on Korea as a Marine communications officer in Japan and South Korea.

At home, young Wallis held his father’s officer’s sword and swagger stick. He wore remnants of his father’s uniform: dress greens and dress blues, sundry patches and medallions. He read books filled with photos on Marine Corps history. He listened to stories — tales that took place in Iwakuni, Okinawa, South Korea and New Zealand.

After high school in Taylor — outside of Austin — the pull of genetics and Marine Corps paraphernalia proved irresistible. In 1984 at age 19, he enlisted in the U.S. Marines as a reservist.

“I entered the reserves because I wanted to be a commercial diver and work offshore,” says Sanborn, an assistant professor of English at Our Lady of the Lake University. “I joined the Marines very much out of a sense of loyalty to my father.”

Part of Sanborn’s mission is to help military veterans in college. At OLLU, he serves as chairman of the Veteran’s Day Committee.

Sanborn completed six years in the reserves and became a commercial diver. He earned a bachelor’s, master’s and PhD in English from Texas Tech. He took a job teaching at Angelo State before coming to OLLU in Fall 2013.

When he entered the reserves, Sanborn was trained as a rifleman and machine gunner one weekend a month and for two weeks during the summer. After transferring to an STA platoon — Surveillance and Target Acquisition — in Houston, he learned scouting and sniper skills. “You had to be able to plot a six point grid on a map,” he says. “You had to be able to use a compass. You had to be able to shoot. You had to be able to use a radio. You’d be surprised at how few people can do all those things.”

Six years after joining the reserves, Sanborn went on inactive duty in 1990. Two years later, he received an honorable discharge at the rank of corporal. Though Sanborn never saw combat duty, he emerged with a compelling experience that reflected pre-911 America.

“When I went in in 1984, the shadow of the Vietnam War was still very heavy upon the United States and enlistment was down,” Sanborn says. “Going into the military was not a very popular thing. When we went to boot camp in the Marines, we still had Vietnam era equipment. Steel pots for headgear. M16A1s (the primary Vietnam infantry rifle). Colt 1911s (the standard .45 caliber sidearm). We were still using Vietnam era tactics. Ivan was our hypothetical enemy. We were training against the Soviet Union, while concurrently and paradoxically, we were still on the back end of jungle warfare. Terrorism was not even on the horizon.”

As a reservist, Sanborn learned discipline, patience and goal-setting. As a professor, Sanborn shares those life lessons in class. “Students need to understand that life takes endurance and life takes patience and life takes a plan,” he says. “It also takes discipline and goal setting, both long term and short term, to achieve things.”

As chair of the Veteran’s Day Committee, Sanborn is eager to recognize those who have served in the military. “There have been 29 Medal of Honor winners who are from San Antonio and South Texas,” Sanborn says. “We’d like to honor those veterans as well as all our vets who are on campus.”